History Literature / GeorgesMarvellousMedicine

* DoNotTryThisAtHome: Modern editions of the book come with warnings to children that mixing thirty odd different chemicals in a pot and giving it to your relatives to drink would probably in fact be quite poisonous. Sad thing is that there is probably at least ''one'' [[ChildrenAreInnocent kid that needed to to hear it]]. The same warning was repeated solemnly by children's TV presenter Philip Schofield, when the story was narrated on Children's TV.

And far from poisoning her, it instead makes her grow incredibly tall. When his parents return to the farm and see that it has similar effects on the animals, his dad tries to get George to reproduce the formula. However, he cannot get it ''exactly'' right (to the misfortune of the chickens they test it on). The fourth and final batch turns out to be a ''shrinking'' medicine...which Grandma mistakes for tea and drinks a whole teacup full of. She then proceeds to shrink till she is invisible to the naked eye.

** George wonders if Grandma might be a witch (no, not [[Literature/TheWitches that kind]]...probably) and in the same chapter Grandma implies that she has magic powers. Nothing actually happens to back this up; considering how nasty she is, she may just have been making it up to frighten him.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Grandma shrinks to microscopic size after stealing George's fourth reattempt at recreating the growth formula.

* ChekhovsGun: Grandma's SpotOfTea habit. She demands one every couple of minutes from George or his parents after something exciting happens. In the end, she mistakes George's Marvellous Medicine Number Four for tea and gulps it against his and her daughter's protests. This shrinks her to microscopic size.

* NotNowKiddo: George and his mother yell at his grandmother that they'll make her fresh tea and the cup in his hand isn't for drinking. Grandma doesn't listen, assuming George is being greedy about making tea for himself and not sharing. It's only after she gulps it that her daughter is able to tell her that it was George's Marvelous Medicine 4.

* DoNotTryThisAtHome: Modern editions of the book come with warnings to children that mixing thirty odd different chemicals in a pot and giving it to your relatives to drink would probably in fact be quite poisonous. Sad thing is that there is probably at least ''one'' [[ChildrenAreInnocent kid that needed to to hear it]].

* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Grandma's sticky end; she shrinks to the point where she's no longer visisble.

* RealityEnsues: As George was just grabbing whatever he could find to make the medicine, when he tries to recreate it he forgets various minor details, such as lipsticks, and his mother also observes that the recipe needs the same ''amount'' of each ingredient rather than just needing the same ingredients. As a result George forgets a few minor ingredients and will never be able to guarantee the right quantity of even the ones he did remember, resulting in three failed attempts to recreate the recipe.

* RealityEnsues: As George was just grabbing whatever he could find to make the medicine, when he tries to recreate it he forgets various minor details, such as lipsticks, and his mother also observes that the recipe needs the same ''amount'' of each ingredient rather than just needing the same ingredients. As a result George forgets a few minor ingredients and will never be able to get the right balance, resulting in three failed attempts to recreate the recipe.
* SchmuckBait: Grandma sees a cup of what looks like tea in George's hands the day after she becomes a giant. She demands it immediately. George and his mother protest, but George's father tells her it's good tea. Grandma takes the cup and chugs it.

** George wonders if Grandma might be a witch (no, not [[Literature/TheWitches that kind...probably) and in the same chapter Grandma implies that she has magic powers. Nothing actually happens to back this up; considering how nasty she is, she may just have been making it up to frighten him.

** George wonders if Grandma might be a witch and in the same chapter Grandma implies that she has magic powers. Nothing actually happens to back this up; considering how nasty she is, she may just have been making it up to frighten him.

* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Grandma, and most of the animals of the farm, after some doses of medicine.

* ChekhovsGun: Grandma's SpotOfTea habit. She demands one every couple of minutes from George or his parents after something exciting happens. In the end, she mistakes George's Marvellous Medicine Number four for tea and gulps it against his and her daughter's protests. This shrinks her to microscopic size.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Grandma shrinks to microscopic size after stealing George's fourth reattempt at the growth formula.

* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Grandma's sticky end.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: George wonders if Grandma might be a witch and in the same chapter Grandma implies that she has magic powers but nothing actually happens to back this up and considering how nasty she is, she may just have been making it up to frighten him.

* AssholeVictim: Grandma's end is horrible, and it's clear that Mr. Kranky knows what he's doing when he tells her to drink it when she mistakes it for tea, but she's such of a jerk that even George's mom (her own ''daughter!'') gets over this rather quickly.

* HaveAGayOldTime: "Horny finger" is used twice and "mighty queer chickens" is used once.

* AbusiveParents: George's Grandma loves to terrify him when his parents aren't there. She sometimes even does it while they ''are'' there.

* SquareCubeLaw: Square cube what? Though Grandma is depicted as unnaturally thin in her giant form, which could have compensated for the otherwise increased mass, the chicken the same batch of medicine is used on retains its relative girth as it grows, yet is still agile enough to run around with Grandma on its back.

* ChekhovsGun: Grandma's SpotOfTea habit. She demands one every couple of minutes from George or his parents after something exciting happens. In the end, she mistakes George's Marvelous Medicine Number four for tea and gulps it against his and her daughter's protests. This shrinks her to microscopic size.

''George's Marvelous Medicine'' is a 1981 children's book by Creator/RoaldDahl. George is a young boy left alone with his horrible grandmother. Responsible for giving her medicine, he decides to mix his own one using ingredients such as paint and animal pills, having no idea what the result will be.